VICTOR OMNIVM GENTIVM

Triton XIV, Lot: 833. Estimate $5000. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine I. AD 307/310-337. AV Solidus (18mm, 4.45 g, 6h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 313/4. CONSTANTI NVS P F AVG, laureate head right / VICTOR OMNIVM GENTIVM, Constantine standing left, holding signum and shield, with two suppliants before him and a captive behind; PTR. RIC VII 72; Schulten Em. 16; Depeyrot 19/1. Near EF, toned, lustrous, a few minor marks under tone.

From the Collection of a Northern California Gentleman.

Following his defeat of Maxentius in AD 312, Constantine I was not only consolidating his position as emperor of the western portion of the Roman Empire, but also preparing to deal with his eastern imperial rival, Licinius I. Moving north from from Arelate in AD 313, Constantine campaigned along the Rhine frontier until the autumn of AD 314, when he wintered in his capital at Trier to celebrate his victories and await his anticipated decennalia. Thus, the more immediate reference marked by this reverse was to the emperor’s success against omnium gentium (i.e. barbarum). Eusebius (Laus Constantini IX), while using this same phrase in praising the emperor, applied the term in a broader context. No longer did the omnium gentium apply only to those Germanic tribes against whom Constantine had been fighting - now the implied concept of barbarum could be extended to include those “enemies of the state” (hostium) who sought to undermine the social, political, or religious structure and harmony of the empire.